Whirlpool WED6605M Running Cost (Clothes Dryer)
What the Whirlpool WED6605M costs to run
ENERGY STAR certifies the Whirlpool WED6605M at 608 kWh/yr, about average for its category to run for its category.
That $114 is priced at 18.8¢/kWh, the average of all 51 state rates this site tracks. Your own state's rate is one click away.
Efficient, or not, for a clothes dryer
The category average is 572 kWh/yr; this model runs 6.3% above it, ranking 384 of 639 clothes dryers tracked here for running cost. That average is drawn from all 639 clothes dryers ENERGY STAR currently certifies, not an outside number, a $7/year gap from this model at the national rate. Full sourcing is in the sourcing notes.
Right next to it on the list
A rank or two either side of the Whirlpool WED6605M: Whirlpool WED5720R ($114/yr, 608 kWh/yr), then Whirlpool WED6620H ($114/yr, 608 kWh/yr).
Within the Whirlpool lineup
Ranked 27 of Whirlpool's 114 certified clothes dryers, this sits between the WHD3090G ($43/yr, the brand's cheapest) and the WGF5727T ($129/yr, its priciest).
What this adds up to over time
NAHB's Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components puts a typical clothes dryer's service life at 12 years; run the Whirlpool WED6605M that long and it costs about $1,372 in electricity, on top of whatever it cost to buy.
Is it worth replacing?
Efficient as certified clothes dryers go, $114/year is a reasonable baseline if you're comparing what else is on the market.
See what else is certified in this category before you decide.
If you're keeping it
$114/year to run is the predictable cost of the Whirlpool WED6605M; a protection plan covers the unpredictable one, a repair bill.
Where this number comes from
Two sourced numbers, nothing modeled: ENERGY STAR's certified kWh/yr for this exact model, and EIA's published state electricity rate. Ranked 384 of 639 certified dryers for running cost, the Whirlpool WED6605M is also worth reading with a caveat specific to this category: the methodology page explains why ENERGY STAR's own combined-energy figure for dryers can overstate the electric bill impact of a gas model. The rest of what changes this number, by state rather than by model, is in the guide to why your state changes this number.